Captain Kangaroo: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

Captain Kangaroo is an American children's television series that aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for nearly 30 years, from October 3, 1955 until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day. In 1986, the American Program Service (now American Public Television, Boston) integrated some newly produced segments into reruns of past episodes, distributing the newer version of the series until 1993. The show was conceived and the title character played by Bob Keeshan, who based the show on "the warm relationship between grandparents and children". Keeshan had portrayed the original Clarabell the Clown on The Howdy Doody Show when it aired on NBC. Captain Kangaroo had a loose structure, built around life in the "Treasure House" (later known as "The Captain's Place") where the Captain (the name "kangaroo" came from the big pockets in his coat) would tell stories, meet guests, and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets. Keeshan performed as Captain Kangaroo more than 9000 times over the nearly 30 year run of the show.

The show was telecast live to the East Coast and the Midwest for its first four years and broadcast on kinescope for the West Coast, as Keeshan would not perform the show live three times a day, and was in black-and-white until 1967. The May 17, 1971 episode saw two major changes on the show: The Treasure House was renovated and renamed "The Captain's Place" and the Captain replaced his navy blue coat with a red coat. In September 1981, CBS shortened the hour-long show to a half-hour, briefly retitled it "Wake Up with the Captain", and moved it to an earlier time slot; it was later moved to weekends in September 1982, and returned to an hour-long format. It was canceled by CBS at the end of 1984.

Series details

• Title: Captain Kangaroo
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Comedy, Children
• Premiere date: 1961-07-22
• Final broadcast date listed: 1981-08-21
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: CBS
• Network country: United States
• Typical episode runtime: 58 minutes
• TVmaze community rating: 8/10
• TVMaze ID: 8475
• TVDB ID: 78314

Cast and credited roles

• Bob Keeshan — Captain Kangaroo

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 6: premiered 1961-07-22; final listed air date 1961-08-05.
• Season 8: premiered 1962-11-18; final listed air date 1962-11-18.
• Season 13: premiered 1968-07-27; final listed air date 1968-07-27.
• Season 20: premiered 1975-11-14; final listed air date 1975-11-14.
• Season 21: premiered 1976-08-27; final listed air date 1978-02-20.
• Season 1955: premiered 1955-10-03; final listed air date 1955-10-03.
• Season 1956: premiered 1956-01-07; final listed air date 1956-01-07.
• Season 1976: premiered 1976-10-27; final listed air date 1976-10-27.
• Season 1977: premiered 1977-05-18; final listed air date 1977-05-18.
• Season 1981: premiered 1981-08-21; final listed air date 1981-08-21.

Source and licence

Adapted from Captain Kangaroo on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.